George Lucas, Heuristics, Propaganda, and Art
The other day Hannah and I saw the old George Lucas short Electronic Labyrinth: THX 1138 4EB on Cathode Cinema. It had no dialogue and each scene was almost entirely that of the protagonist running to escape some vaguely evil oppressors. Despite lacking any quality of entertainment, it put me in a weird kind of contemplative state that I appreciated in the end. (Tarkovsky movies have the same effect. I'm always happy they're over, but they give me something positive and thought provoking when it's all said and done.) As the film wrapped up I couldn't help but wonder if the ultimate point of art is to help us gain better and more practical heuristics.
What steers our lives is a bunch of course corrections. In the same way an outfielder in a baseball game doesn't do complex calculations based on doctoral thesis' of physics to catch a fly ball, our days are made up of applying the most appropriate rules of thumb to given situations. We achieve success by zig-zagging our way to the finish line. So, the more universal the heuristics we operate with, the better off we usually are.
Art can help us stumble through life by presenting us with a proposed slice of reality. This slice has the potential to reaffirm, refine, or even propose new heuristics for us to use. It insinuates a truth and we look, analyze, and watch, so that we may adopt it if it turns out the work was "right". (Something that time can usually only tell.) The big issue with this is that, like people, art can lie to us. I would call this lie propaganda.
Propaganda is when some entity tries to convince us of the truth of a heuristic while omitting or lying about the full story. This is because gray or nuanced areas, which propaganda necessarily needs to eliminate, is an impediment to getting people to climb aboard. Since action is usually more costly to the individual than the group though, we try and assure we aren’t being tricked by their morality. At the same time, we are also looking to leverage simple heuristics. Propaganda and heuristics, as a result, can be indecipherable in some instances. Additionally, this indecipherability doesn’t even need to be intentional. And even though propaganda is most often associated with nationalism, it inevitably is prone to being propagated by any binary moral codes especially ones that demand dogmatism. There must always be the good guys (us) and the bad guys (them). This isn't just a tool of governments though, but can be used by anyone, or any group—even individuals. Artists aren't exempt from this and may even be the biggest culprits of circulating propaganda on some level.
Not all of art or life is so epically moral though. Sometimes creative work can include entertainment and fashion. How much they tip into these categories can determine if they are art to begin with, because, if nothing is said or given, I don't think the work can be categorized as art. It can definitely be creative and rely on craft, but creativity and craft are not the only components to what art is. I can't help but wonder if heuristics are part of the magical ingredient.